From Children In Need To Christmas In Lisburn

Good as our word, we took the kids out for the afternoon today. First stop was the Dublin Road on a bit of business. While there, the Ray and Jay saw a commotion outside the BBC on Bedford Street and we headed over to investigate.

Children In Need

It had totally escaped me that Children In Need was on this weekend. Whoops.

We got there way too early, so there wasn’t much going on - just a bit of face painting, balloon twisting and stuff. Pudsey was there - hooray! And so was the Elvis impersonator. Every single charity event I’ve seen, an Elvis impersonator turns up. Why? There was also a truly deafening metal band playing in the foyer of the BBC building. We had gone in to snaffle some of the free food, but ended up being driven out by Death Metal!

Christmas Lights In Lisburn

The Christmas Tree switch on in Lisburn was great fun for the kids. We went to the Bow Street Mall for a bite to eat before heading out into the street for the parade. Lisburn always seem to put on a good show at public events like this, and we weren’t disappointed.

Thousands (*apparently) of people lined Bow Street to wait for the arrival of Santa and the parade. Not sure who the MC was, but he did a good job. While we were there, the PSNI Women’s Choir ran through a couple of carols and then there was a short speech/sermon from a Lisburn minister - I didn’t catch the name - which was marginally more interesting than the speech from Lisburn’s Mayor, Jonathan Craig. Anyway, once the formalities were over, it was down to the wait for Santa to arrive.

In true local council fashion, the thing didn’t flow well at all, and the MC repeatedly assured us that Santa was en route. Didn’t matter, most of us were frozen to the spot anyway. After an excruciating wait - where we deliberated whether to hang around - eventually the parade began.

It was a beautiful, but brief affair, with children from local schools walking down Bow Street with lanterns, interspersed with costumed dancers and the usual array of cartoon animals! Not a bad night, but the organisers need to get the timing better. As always, Lisburn was well turned. The tree and the street were tastefully and beautifully decorated.